Living History in Vermont

Preserving the Past with a Collection of Vernacular Structures

Vermont, nestled as it is between the harsh granite prominence that is New Hampshire and the history and wealth of New York and Massachusetts, often becomes known to us through its endless rows of gently high green hills, open pastures populated with just the right number of cows, covered bridges and inhabitants whose good nature is a constant. Yet it has its own distinct heroic historical moments.

In 1770 it fought to separate itself from New Hampshire and New York, whose two governors sought jurisdiction over it. In 1777 it declared itself independent of them. It was the first state to join the Union after the original 13 and it was the first state to ban slavery outright in its constitution. It played an important part in the history of the Underground Railroad. And in our Civil War, fighting on the right side, the side of the Union, it lost more citizens than any other state in the Union.

To see it now is to be reminded that American style does not come from the top. Rice is only an aristocrat in retrospect.

Not too much is made of these great accomplishments. Yes, every year there is a parade in Bennington, the third-largest city in Vermont with a population of 15,700, to celebrate the Battle of Bennington, an important victory in the Revolutionary War. But that would seem to be about all there is. Vermont behaves like the very good person who does the very good thing—anonymously.

It is often in the small, the personal and the domestic that Vermont takes note of itself. There is, for instance, in the town of Manchester Center, The North Shire Museum and History Center. This entity is made up of a set of seven different structures built in the 18th and 19th centuries, each of them a reminder of a Vermont that is past and yet is strangely familiar. There is Oliver Rice House, and his barn, a tavern and the tavern’s two barns, another barn called the Weir Wheelwright and Blacksmith Shop and yet another called the Parker Cole Barn. So many barns, indeed, but among the thrilling sights to behold on a beautiful sunny day in Vermont is a barn, painted red or not, sitting in the middle of a newly mowed field of green grass.

In this little museum, though, it is Oliver Rice House that is of particular interest. Oliver Rice was born circa 1730 in Hardwick, Massachusetts, but in that way so typical of Americans, he moved from the place he was born to someplace else, where he would find his real and true self and live his real and true life. He moved to Bennington, got married, built himself a house on a large piece of property and made a farm there. That house—big and saltbox-like in architectural style—stood there for over 200 years. One day, in another quite typical American way, it was found to be standing directly in the path of a proposed highway and so it was dismantled board by board and tenderly taken to Manchester Center, where it was reassembled and restored to look the way it had when first built and lived in by Oliver Rice.

To see the house now, the details of its usefulness revived but only for display, is to be reminded that American style does not come from the top. Rice is only an aristocrat in retrospect, he is only an aristocrat when compared to a slave.

Perhaps the best way to see the rest of the buildings is to imagine yourself Oliver Rice, a farmer not just in northern New England, but in Vermont. A barn would be a necessity, a visit to the blacksmith shop would be needed from time to time, and a tavern is always very important.

The Northshire, as that area of Vermont is called, an area just directly north of Bennington and not too much further than that, is among the most pleasing areas of a very pleasing-to-look-at state. On certain days, and they are not rare, it is among the most beautiful places in which to find yourself alive.

How thrilling it can be to find yourself in a place among things that remind you of some of the difficulties involved in being a human being and, at the same time, some of its pleasures. The North Shire Museum and History Center captures this feeling exactly.

The North Shire Museum and History Center 106 Palmer Place Manchester Center Vermont 05255 802-362-5777